The Lazarus Missions
by SilverGhost3000
Summary: This is a prequel to Interstellar focusing primarily on Dr. Mann and The Lazarus Missions that he led. Reviews and constructive criticism are most welcome. This is my first ever piece of writing in novel form as I'm more of an aspiring screenwriter but I thought I'd give this a shot. Enjoy!


**The Lazarus Missions**

"There is moment…" Dr. Hugh Mann paused for effect and scanned his eyes across the room full of NASA's best scientists and engineers.

"There is a moment… in everyone's life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfil his mission - a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he finds greatness. It's his finest hour. It's his destiny," said Dr. Mann with the self-assuredness and conviction that everyone at NASA had come to expect from him.

Directly across him sat Dr. Michael Chen, a professional sceptic-cum-engineer who was, as usual, left deeply unimpressed by his colleague's verboseness.

"You're not seriously suggesting that you're going to try to travel through that wormhole are you?" asked Dr. Michael Chen matter-of-factly.

"That, Dr. Chen," replied Dr. Mann, fully expecting Dr. Chen's scepticism "Is exactly what I plan to do,"

"Madness! A complete folly I tell you! You saw what the gravitational forces did the probes we sent in. There is no way a spacecraft large enough to carry human beings in it would survive would survive such a journey."

"I am still working out the mathematics of it all but I believe that if you enter the gravitational anomaly at a specific angle of approach then not only would you survive the journey but the ride itself would be smoother than that of a Space Shuttle gliding towards touchdown."

Dr. Chen shook his head disapprovingly. "Seeing as two of the original Space Shuttles blew up due to human error you might want to find a better analogy. And besides, even if you were to somehow survive the journey, on the other side there at least 12 planets, 3 of them orbiting a supermassive black hole. The laws of relativity dictate that it would take you hundreds of years from our perspective back on Earth for you to visit each planet. Everyone would be dead by the time you completed your mission."

"As always Dr. Chen I admire your enthusiasm for scientific endeavour. I am indeed aware of the relativistic implications of such a mission which is exactly why I have invited the 11 of you here with me today. I need you all to help me save the human race from extinction," replied Dr. Mann.

The room fell completely silent as everyone tried to process the bombshell that Dr. Mann had just dropped on them. Then NASA Flight Engineer Ori Sachs stood up to ask a question he already knew the answer to but still felt implored to ask out of the irrational hope that maybe, just maybe, he might be wrong,

"These missions that you want us to embark on, these will be one-way missions. There's no way back, is there?"

"You know better than most here that there is no way back Mr. Sachs. There isn't enough fuel capacity in any of our current spacecraft for a return trip," said Dr. Mann.

"I'm sorry Dr. Mann but I can't be a part of this," interjected Indira Singh. "I have a husband, I have children… I can't just abandon them to blast-off to some faraway galaxy on a mission that most likely won't even succeed. I'm sorry but I just can't."

"Your husband and your children and indeed you yourself will die along with everyone else on Earth if we don't have enough people on this mission."

"I would rather die on Earth with my loved ones around me than alone on some godforsaken rock millions of light years away," replied Indira.

"I agree with Indira," said Thabo Khumalo.

"Me too," said Dr. Thomas Brown, "The chances of such a mission succeeding are statistically insignificant."

The entire meeting room came alive again with the chatter of all the scientists and engineers convincing themselves why they won't participate in such a risky mission. Amidst all the back and forth a voice suddenly cut through all noise with two words that changed everything:

"I'm in!" said Dr. Amelia Brand.

"Amelia! No!" said her boyfriend Dr. Wolf Edmunds, "What are you doing?"

"The right thing," replied Brand, "Dr. Mann is right, if we don't do this we are all dead."

Edmunds took Brand's hand, squeezed it gently and gazed into her soft brown eyes, "My dearest Amelia, you leave me with no choice then. I'm also in."

As the meeting progressed, one by one each of the scientists eventually agreed to join the mission. Some were more reluctant than others yet even the biggest sceptics among them could not help but realise the gravity of the situation. A situation that required no less a feat than the salvation of the entire human race.

After everyone had left Dr. Mann sat quietly at his desk reading through the notes and diagrams on his journal. He was pretty pleased with himself that he had successfully convinced every scientist that he had originally wanted to join him on the mission. The time had now arrived though for the serious hard work of planning the finer details of the mission and figuring out who should go to which planet. Then there was also the critical matter of working out exactly how to pilot a spaceship through a wormhole. No man had ever done this before but luckily he had his trusty robot companion KIPP to help him do the equations and run the simulations.

KIPP was originally designed as a US Marine Corps Mechanical Autonomous Combat Specialist (MACS) during The Water Wars of the mid-2020s. Most of the MACS were decommissioned at the end of The Wars as part of the conditions of The Peace Treaty signed by all the warring nations in Buenos Aires. The few remaining MACS were then repurposed and donated to various scientific bodies around the world, of which NASA received three: KIPP, CASE and TARS. TARS was assigned to Professor John Brand to help him solve his gravity equation while CASE was tasked with assisting with the assembly and maintenance of the Endurance spacecraft in low-Earth orbit and KIPP was assigned to Dr. Mann to help him with his top-secret mission to save the world.

Dr. Mann and KIPP worked through the entire night calculating, recalculating and sometimes re-recalculating all of their work to make sure everything was one hundred percent correct. They both knew that they had only one chance to save what's left of humanity. There is no room for error.

Their hard work was suddenly disturbed by the familiar figure of Prof. Brand strolling half-awake into Dr. Mann's office.

"You're up late tonight Professor. Are you ok?" asked Dr. Mann.

Prof. Brand mumbled a few incoherent sentences. He looked like a man who had just lost the will to live.

"Can you repeat that? I didn't hear a word of what you were say-,"

"The gravity equation," interjected Prof. Brand "It does not work."


End file.
